any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall, (a stumbling block, occasion of stumbling) i.e. a rock which is a cause of stumbling

fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation

any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin

Strong's Definition

A «scandal»; probably from a derivative of G2578; a trapstick (bent sapling), that is, snare (figuratively cause of displeasure or sin): - occasion to fall (of stumbling), offence, thing that offends, stumbling-block.

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σκάνδαλον, σκανδάλου, τό, a purely Biblical ((occurring some twenty-five times in the Greek O. T., and fifteen, quotations included, in the New)) and ecclesiastical word for σκανδάληθρον, which occurs occasionally in native Greek writings; the Sept. for מוקֵשׁ (a noose, a snare) and מִכְשׁול;

a. properly, "the movable stick or tricker (`trigger') of a trap, trap-stick; a trap, snare; any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall" (a stumblingblock, occasion of stumbling): Leviticus 19:14; πέτρασκανκαλου ( A. V. a rock of offence), i. e. a rock which is a cause of stumbling (Latin offendiculum) — figuratively applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of salvation (see πρόσκομμα), Romans 9:33,1Peter 2:8 (7) (from Isaiah 8:14).

b. metaphorically, "any person or thing by which one is (`entrapped') drawn into error or sin" (cf. Winer's Grammar, 32); α. of persons (( Joshua 23:13; 1 Samuel 18:21)): Matthew 13:41; Matthew 16:23 (where σκάνδαλον " non ex effectu, sed ex natura et condicione propria dicitur," Calov.); so Χριστόςἐσταυρωμένος is called (because his ignominious death on the cross roused the opposition of the Jews), 1 Corinthians 1:23. β. of things: τιθέναιτίνισκάνδαλον (literally, in Judith 5:1), to put a stumbling-block in one's way, i. e. to do that by which another is led to sin, Romans 14:13; the same idea is expressed by βάλλεινσκάνδαλονἐνώπιοντίνος ( to cast a stumbling-block before one), Revelation 2:14; οὐκἐστισκάνδαλονἐντίνι (see εἰμί, V:4. e.), 1 John 2:10; plural σκάνδαλα, words or deeds which entice to sin ( Wisdom of Solomon 14:11), Matthew 18:7 (cf. Buttmann, 322 (277) n.; Winer's Grammar, 371 (348)); Luke 17:1; σκάνδαλαποιεῖνπαράτήνδιδαχήν, to cause persons to be drawn away from the true doctrine into error and sin (cf. παρά, III:2a.), Romans 16:17; τόσκάνδαλοντοῦσταυροῦ, the offence which the cross, i. e. Christ's death on the cross, gives (cf. α. at the end above), ( R. V. the stumbling-block of the cross), Galatians 5:11; equivalent to a cause of destruction, Romans 11:9, from Psalm 68:23 (Psalm 69:23>).